The Decision tightens governance and independence standards for the body that runs Europe’s payment and settlement system.
19th December 2025 – This Decision amends Decision 2019/166 which established the Market Infrastructure Board and governs its operations. The MIB is the ECB’s internal governance body responsible for overseeing the Eurosystem’s market infrastructure services, that is, the technical platforms hat underpin cash settlement, securities settlement, and collateral management across the euro area and beyond.
These amendments update four annexes to the 2019 Decision, with the most substantive change being the complete replacement of Annex IV, which now sets out a revised and more detailed procedure for the selection, appointment, and replacement of the MIB’s two non-central bank members, that is, the private sector representatives drawn from payments and securities industries. This new procedure formalises the use of a reserve list for filling vacancies, setting a maximum total term of six years for non-central bank members, and introducing a new eligibility requirement, that of compliance with independence standards applicable to directors of systemically important payment systems under Regulation 2025/1355.
The remaining amendments update the definition of Eurosystem infrastructure services across all four Annexes to explicitly include the Eurosystem Collateral Management System (ECMS), which went live after the 2019 Decision was adopted. Minor updates to the Code of Conduct and Rules of Procedure align the text with current practice.
Additional notes:
The MIB oversees the Eurosystem’s critical financial infrastructure: T2 (the euro large-value payment system), T2S (the EU’s centralised securities settlement platform), TIPS (the instant payments settlement service), and now ECMS (the collateral management system launched in 2024). Any change to how that board is composed and governed has downstream relevance for how decisions affecting those systems are made. The formalisation of the non-central bank member selection process, including the independence requirement tied to the SIPS Regulation, reflects a broader trend toward stricter governance standards for ECB bodies with operational responsibilities over systemically critical infrastructure.
